Lesson 11 – Hold on to your dinner !
Exercise 10 B – PA28 Stall procedure with flaps
Last time out I had the best lesson yet in my path towards gaining my LAPL. This time out we are going to continue with stalls and slow flying.
After all the hype I had read regards stalls and how not to get into one, the last lesson calmed my fears regards the roller coaster ride I was expecting, I actually enjoyed it and found it nothing like it had been explained in other blogs and forum posts that I had read. So with that in mind I was once again really looking forward to this lesson where we were once again looking at recognising the stall and how to recover from one. One thing i will mention at this point, you are not being trained how to stall an aircraft, this is something you never want to get into, the reason for these lessons is to educate you what the symptoms of a stall are and how to recover the aircraft BEFORE it actually does stall !
Once again, one of my main aims this lesson was to get the take off right, smooth full throttle and allow myself to concentrate on other aspects of the procedure. The taxi out was much better with no verbal direction from my FI even when it came to lining up the aircraft into wind for the engine power checks. It’s not that I don’t like the sound of my FI, far from it, but when I’m hearing less of him during the lesson, it must mean I’m doing it right. Power checks complete, call for depature, await landing aircraft and then line up, again with no verbal input, checked with my FI that he was happy and ready to proceed, brakes off, heels to the floor and gradually apply full throttle. We had quite a crosswind today, so there was some left aileron required and at first a good dose of right ruddder. A little prompting from the FI regards pulling back on the column to keep the weight off the nose wheel and then I gradually continued the pull back and up we went followed very very quickly by the crosswind now catching an aircraft no longer running along the ground where the wheels are helping it stay in the right direction. Another good dose of right rudder brought the nose back around and we climbed out. Another good one.
We climbed out to 3,500′ and my FI took control to once again demonstrate the slow flying and stall characteristics. Last time out we brought the power back, keeping the nose up to maintain altitude and a speed of 65 knots, then went into the recovery of a shallow dive and then climb back out. So, time for the HASELL, Height-Airframe-Safety-Engine-Location-Lookout. Are we at a safe height for the procedure, is the airframe/aircraft ok, are we both strapped in OK and no loose items that may interfere with the manoeuvre, are the engine temps and pressures ok, are we over a suitable location? no built up areas etc, lookout- do a right 90 degree turn then a left 90 degree turn and check no other aircraft in the area. All complete and the FI starts to reduce the power and pull the nose upwards to maintain the height, only this time I notice the power is completely off and the nose is starting to get very high indeed and the speed starts to drop below 50 knots, the aircraft starts shaking and the engine struggling and all of a sudden the nose just drops and I’m staring a field of yellow rape seed ! Column forward, full power applied, pull out of the dive, carb heat to cold and once the speed starts to increase we start a climb back to the original starting height, simples eh ! I am now fully aware of what all those posts I had read were talking about ! Last weeks lesson was just a taster, this week was the real deal ! Right Paul… your turn !
Once again we go through the procedure and I have now got the power fully off, the nose is pointing to the gods and the speed had dropped to 45 knots, the aircraft is shaking, the engine moaning and I’m waiting for the nose to just drop… ‘Keep pulling back on that column Paul, keep pulling, keep pulling’ I cannot believe the amount of pressure being applied against me whilst trying to pull the column backwards, its a serious workout. Eventually the aircraft gives up, the wings stall and the nose drops very quickly and once again I’m staring at a freshly harvested wheat field. My instant reaction is to pull back on the column ! ‘No No No Paul’ as my FI forces the column forward. We recover and do it all over again. My third attempt is much better than my first and I am now over the initial shock of the nose dropping, even though you know its going to, and that frees up the mind to apply forward pressure on the column, apply full power whilst also putting the carb heat away, check for positive speed increase and gently pull out of the dive and into a climb to recover your height. We then move onto doing the same manoeuvre but this time with a stage of flaps. The creates a much more stable stall and recovery.
Once again the time has flown, pardon the pun, and its time we headed back home. The stalls got better as we progressed but thanks to my brain matter having something new to concentrate on, it started to forget how to turn in balance and some of the skill learnt in previous lessons. This put a bit of a taint on the lesson, obviously turning and rudder control still needs work before it becomes second nature. Again I join the circuit and descend to 1000′, turn left on downwind and this time my FI, who normally does the RT at these stages, instructs me to call ‘late downwind’, we run through the pre landing checks, make another left turn for base leg and then drop 2 stages of flaps and before you know it we have over run the centre line again and I make a quick left turn onto final. The crosswind from the left is making me work pretty hard on this one and overshooting the centre line has not helped ! With the nose of the aircraft pointing some 20+ degrees to the left of the runway I manage to keep the aircraft from being blown any further right and start to crab back some of the left I need to get back on the centre line of the runway. With a little verbal coaching from my FI I continue the approach, ‘You do it Paul and I will follow through, should I feel the need to I will take control, just relax your hands and feet when I say so’,. Just to demonstrate how easy it can go from great to lots of work we hit a bit of turbulence of which pushes us right, too far right, this is what I think decided my FI to take over and bring us back in line in time and I follow along with the inputs required. I’m getting closer every time, and now, thanks to practising stalls, I know what’s required to pull back on the column and create the round off and stall warning just before touch down.
Shame my turns had let me down today, this had been a good lesson and for the first time in a while I walked away from the aircraft sweating and fatigued, a sign of how much extra work and concentration I was having to do. We will be re-visiting stalls and slow flying again next time around to polish off and then it looks like we start hitting circuits, something I am really looking forward to. Many complain its boring and repetitive, I say its repetitive & training and teaching your hands and legs to do things without thinking, something I am realising is a big part of flying and freeing up brain matter allowing you to concentrate on the job in hand.
This Lesson
19-08-15 : PA28-161 : G-BOZI : PUT : Conington to Conington : 11:00 : 11:55 : 0.55
Total time : 9 hours 30 mins